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Universities and colleges worldwide have quickly moved campus-based classes to virtual spaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores the impact of this sudden transition of learning an...

Curious About Nature: A Passion for Fieldwork was published in February 2020, just before COVID-19 abruptly halted university and college fieldwork. The timing was perfect. COVID-19 brought out int...

This paper documents and discusses textbook representations of the scope of physical geography. Eight themes in contemporary physical geography are identified from current textbooks, namely a spatial perspective, the concept of a “natural” world, impacts on people, process and system concepts, anthropogenic impacts, environmental change, linkages between systems, and physical geography as a science. The emergence of anthropogenic impacts as a theme challenges traditional notions of a natural world, and an increased focus on spatial perspectives and the concept of “place” challenges the idea of physical geography as a science. Les themes definitoires de la geographie physique dans les manuels scolaires Cet article documente et traite des representations de la portee de la geographie physique dans les manuels scolaires. Huit themes de la geographie physique contemporaine sont recenses dans les manuels actuels, notamment une perspective spatiale, le concept de monde « naturel », l'incidence sur les gens, les concepts de processus et de systeme, les impacts anthropiques, les changements environnementaux, les liens entre les systemes et la geographie physique comme science. L'emergence de la thematique des impacts anthropiques remet en question les notions traditionnelles d'un monde naturel et un interet accru porte aux perspectives spatiales ainsi que le concept de « lieu » remettent en question l'idee de la geographie physique comme science.

Like other disciplines, physical geography has seen substantial recent interest in research on ways to improve undergraduate teaching and learning. Most of this research has taken place in a constructivist framework in which students construct knowledge in ways that are meaningful to them. Constructivist theory forms the basis for a wide range of active learning approaches, such as inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning. These approaches are inductive in that students build theory and generalizations from case studies rather than more traditional approaches in which the students learn the theory and then study some examples. Students are typically more engaged in their active learning than they are in traditional approaches, but the impacts of the newer approaches on student learning are unclear. Experiential and service learning, together with fieldwork, offer considerable organizational challenges, but the learning rewards are clear and unchallenged. Attempts to replace fieldwork with virtual field trips have met with resistance, but there has been little research on the ways that virtual fieldwork could be improved. Introductory physical geography textbooks have failed to keep up with changes in teaching the subject, although there have been some recent innovations that offer promise. Animations in particular seem to engage students, although there is no evidence that they enhance the learning of physical geography. The nature of the relationship between research and teaching continues to fascinate, yet eludes clarification. The scholarship of teaching and learning physical geography offers challenges and opportunities for new and experienced faculty who have not previously published in this field.

The physics and chemistry education literature has grappled with an appropriate definition for the concept of heat for the past four decades. Most of the literature promotes the view that heat is ‘energy in transit’ or ‘involves the transfer of energy’ between the system and surroundings because of a difference in temperature. Given that many undergraduate students are not learning the concept of heat in physics and chemistry alone, the goal of this investigation is to explore the conceptions of heat as presented in textbooks from across the science disciplines. An analysis of the definitions of heat from physics, chemistry, the biological sciences and the earth sciences showed a significant variation in the definitions within a discipline and between the disciplines. Specifically, the physics and chemistry textbooks used ‘energy in transit’ or ‘transfer of energy’ definitions (Class I), whereas textbooks from other disciplines typically used definitions which relate heat to ‘molecular kinetic energy’ (Cl...

Many introductory physical geography textbooks use the term ‘heat’ in ways that reflect usage of the word in physics and chemistry textbooks prior to the late 1960s. It is now generally accepted by...

A physical geographers’ scope of practice is not defined by any regulatory or academic organization, so perception of the potential contribution of physical geography to sustainability research has been nebulous or informal, at best. In order to understand what physical geographers can do to enhance sustainability, this paper describes a systematic review of peer-reviewed research on sustainability published in three physical geography journals. The results show that physical geographers are active in sustainability research in terms of a spatial perspective, an understanding of human interactions with the environment, and an ability to recognize, interpret, and project environmental change and its impacts. The depth of this understanding is facilitated by a physical geographers’ understanding of the natural world, process and system concepts, the ways that systems are linked and interact, and a willingness to deploy a wide range of methodologies to secure that knowledge. The expertise of physical geographers makes an important contribution to sustainability research and should be considered when multidisciplinary teams are assembled.

Compositional data determined for excavated porcelain sherds suggest that both silicious and phosphatic wares were produced at the Nantgarw and Swansea manufactories. The silicious Swansea sherds are virtually phosphate-free, and have lower MgO ( 2 O 3 (21–25%) contents than magnesian (“soapstone”) porcelains that characterize part of the production history of this manufactory. Together with the silicious Nantgarw samples, they appear to represent a new class of Welsh porcelains. Although visually similar, the silicious porcelains can easily be distinguished from phosphatic samples by their appearance under a black (UV) light. The silicious paste might represent a technological improvement on the phosphatic recipes used at both manufactories. This hypothesis can be tested using phase diagrams. Ternary phase diagrams suggest that the phosphatic Nantgarw wares have more refractory compositions than expected from the reputation that this manufactory has for having suffered extensive (perhaps 90%) kiln losses. Although adulteration by silica-polymorph (and/or mullite) crystallites precludes the reliable determination of melt compositions, the volume and compositional trajectories of the “glassy” phase in these wares suggest that the phosphatic Nantgarw samples were fired at near-eutectic conditions (approx. 1290°C) in the CaAl 2 Si 2 O 8 -Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 -SiO 2 system, yielding a relatively silica-poor melt. In contrast, the silicious Swansea sherds were fired at temperatures approximately 600°C above eutectics (approx. 700°C) in the SiO 2 -K 2 O-Al 2 O 3 system, yielding a higher proportion (approx. 52 vol.% vs approx. 28 vol.% in representative samples) of melt material, but with relatively SiO 2 -rich compositions. The extreme viscosity of the SiO 2 -rich melt in the silicious wares is inferred to have mitigated some of the firing problems (e.g. distortion or sagging) that apparently plagued the phosphatic porcelains. The use of a recipe with a higher clay/calcite ratio (as represented by Swansea's “duck-egg” porcelain) would have improved the plasticity of the phosphatic Nantgarw paste and reduced the likelihood that it would sag during firing. Two of the Swansea sherds are decorated (i.e. were successfully fired in the biscuit kiln). That the silicious Nantgarw paste also was successfully fired could be confirmed by examining with a black light fugitive specimens that may reside, as yet unidentified, in museum collections.

Microprobe and digitized electron-backscatter image data reveal that eighteenth-century Bow porcelain consists of a silica polymorph(s) (25–43 vol. %), a calcium phosphate phase (42–55%) with homogeneous and stippled textural variants, and a silicon-, aluminium-, and calcium-rich, former melt phase represented by discrete domains (14–20%) and micron-scale blebs that occupy 20–70% of the stippled calcium phosphate. Bulk compositions calculated from these data are deficient in calcium phosphate components and more siliceous than those determined by microprobe analysis of fused powders of the same samples. This reflects difficulties in determining representative values for the composition and volume of the melt phase, and underscores the limitations of the method where applied to media containing compositionally- or texturally-heterogeneous phases.

The units of the Kelvin temperature scale (with an upper case K for the proper noun “Kelvin”) are incorrectly introduced in most undergraduate introductory physical geography textbooks. The internationally recognized unit of the Kelvin temperature scale is the kelvin (lower case k), abbreviated to K (upper case). However, many introductory physical geography textbooks incorrectly use units of “Kelvin,” “degrees Kelvin,” or “oK.” The errors detract from the prestige of physical geography as a natural science discipline.

On 29 June 1875 an American rifle team competed with an Irish team in a shooting match on the outskirts of Dublin. Given the substantial American interest in the match, a reporter for the New York Tribune obtained a ‘‘scoop’’ by transmitting the coordinates of the bullet holes in the targets to their New York office. The coordinates were then plotted and engraved for publication in the 30 June edition of the Tribune (see Figures 1 and Figures 2).

Genetic interpretation of massive, unstructured diamict and diamictite facies is a commonly encountered problem faced by sedimentologists. Data are presented concerning the magnetic characteristics, namely, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and natural remanent magnetism (NRM) of facies deposited by (1) lodgement processes at a glacier base (lodgement till) and (2) subaqueously by pelagic mud deposition and ice-rafting ("rain-out" diamicts). Lodgement tills have an NRM that is distorted around the geomagnetic pole position to form a girdle approximately 90° in length, either transverse or parallel to ice flow direction. This distension appears to be the result of subglacial shear processes because other diamicts, deposited passively by melt-out below stagnant ice and modelled by a laboratory experiment, show a nondeformed NRM clustering around the geomagnetic pole. The AMS data show that lodgement tills have only a weakly orientated magnetic microfabric.Glaciolacustrine "rain-out" diamicts show a precise NRM clustering as in marine and lacustrine muds. This reflects the lack of nongeomagnetic forces acting upon magnetic grains during deposition followed by postdepositional remanence "locking" at depth in the sediment column. These facies show both random AMS fabrics, typical of undisturbed pelagic sediments, and preferred microfabrics resulting from local sediment flow on the lake floor.It is concluded that NRM and AMS offer considerable assistance in genetic studies of massive diamict facies; AMS is particularly useful because the large populations of samples can be rapidly processed. The wider use of this technique by sedimentologists—for investigating other sedimentary facies types—is anticipated.

Strong early Holocene crustal uplift over the Spitsbergen archipelago reflects disappearance of an ice mass centred just north-east of the archipelago and which decayed rapidly just after 10,000 BP after a maximum extension between 12,600 and 10,000 BP. From the lithofacies distributions associated with these events a glacio-isostatic facies model can be defined which, combined with analyses of amino acid racemization, provides a valuable stratigraphic method for correlating pre-Holocene glacio-isostatic events. These are correlated with events in Greenland, and both are contrasted with Weichselian glacial events at the southern margins of the two great Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and with contemporary water mass changes in the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea. The geographical variation in glacier response through time is explained by three principal climatic circulation patterns.